


If We Get Separated, Meet Back at the Bears

by Eirenne Saijima (ladypoetess)



Category: Usagi Drop | Bunny Drop
Genre: Eventual Romance, Family Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-19
Updated: 2015-12-19
Packaged: 2018-05-07 14:59:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5460626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladypoetess/pseuds/Eirenne%20Saijima
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A family outing to the zoo, and the first move is made.</p>
            </blockquote>





	If We Get Separated, Meet Back at the Bears

**Author's Note:**

  * For [geri_chan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/geri_chan/gifts).



> With grateful thanks to [Steel](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Steel) and [kurushi](http://archiveofourown.org/users/kurushi) for many helpful beta comments. All remaining errors and inconsistencies are my own.

It had been more than two years since Kaga Rin had come to live with Kawachi Daikichi after the death of his grandfather, and the man Rin knew as her father, Kaga Souichi. Daikichi had changed his whole life to learn how to be a parent in a short time, quickly realizing just how little he'd have been able to do for Rin if he had kept on as he was before. When no one else was willing to give Rin a loving home, Daikichi could not leave her to be shuffled around and abandoned yet again. Over time, they came to know one another well and to trust each other. When Rin became friends with Nitani Kouki, a boy from her nursery school and my son, Daikichi naturally got to know him and his mother, that’s me, Nitani Yukari, as well. As Kouki and Rin became friends and started spending more time together, Daikichi and I began to help each other with learning how to be better parents. Daikichi taught me about how young boys think and helped to rein in Kouki when he got too rambunctious, and I helped Daikichi learn how to nurse Rin through sickness and aspects of childhood that he had never needed to think of before. Over time, we had all grown closer and begun to love one another as a family should.

 

~*~*~*~

"Daikichi! Hurry up!" Rin turned and bounced on her toes at the entrance to the zoo, excitement  painted on her face, while Kouki ducked around her and tried to look into the street behind her. "I want to see the big rabbits!"

"We will, just be patient." Daikichi called and couldn't help but smile at the girl who was his daughter in the eyes of everyone but the law. Beside him, Yukari chuckled.

"She really has blossomed so much over the past couple of years, hasn't she? She was so quiet when Kouki met her in nursery school, but now she's becoming such a young lady." Yukari-san's expression was fond as she looked at Rin and Kouki. "Kouki has benefitted from her being in his life, as well. He's much more settled and he tries harder to behave when Rin is around. I must thank you for that, Daikichi-san; you always end up taking such care of Kouki."

"No, no, not at all, Yukari-san. You have helped with Rin just as much, I am sure. We help each other, you see." Daikichi smiled slightly. "Let's do our best to have a fun day today with both of them, shall we?"

With a smile, Yukari nodded and they walked on in silence.

 

~*~*~*~

"Daikichi!" Kouki's voice was loud and startling to the people around them, but Daikichi just turned with an inquisitive sound. "Can we see bears?" Kouki punctuated his request with a clawed-hand gesture and a roar that make Yukari sigh and Daikichi laugh softly.

 

"Sure, Kouki-kun. Let's stop and have our bento first, okay?" Looking around the Simian House for Rin, Daikichi found her staring raptly at a little window into an enclosure of small monkeys. "Oy, Rin! Come on, we're going to eat lunch now."

It took only a few minutes to find a grassy spot beneath some fragrant olive trees where there were other families out for the day and taking a break for lunch. Yukari and Rin started pulling bentos out of the satchels while Kouki helped Daikichi spread a blanket out on the grass and weight the corners of it with some small stones from beneath the tree. Once all four had settled onto the blanket, their shoes lined up neatly beside the blanket on the grass, Yukari and Daikichi began opening the bentos and handing the food around.

 

~*~*~*~

The day had begun with Rin and I, in Daikichi's kitchen, starting to make the food for the bentos while Kouki (with prodding from Daikichi) packed a blanket and drinks into a satchel. Then, while Rin got dressed for the day and I pulled her hair up into the bunny ears she loved so much, Daikichi finished packing the food into the bento boxes. A short walk and a train ride later, we'd arrived at the zoo. And now, just as we had that morning, Daikichi and I found ourselves sharing the work of providing for the kids, both of us smiling quietly, as if we each had a secret we hadn't shared.

 

~*~*~*~

The meal passed in relative peace, both kids eating their food with only a little prompting to not become distracted by the other zoo goers or to be sure to properly use their chopsticks, while Daikichi kept seeing subtle, contemplative looks from Yukari over the kids' heads. And, for his own part, Daikichi kept sneaking sidelong looks at the lovely woman he first knew as Kouki's mother. She really had been such a help in those first months with Rin; Daikichi had known almost nothing about raising a child, let alone the day to day minutia of the process. Yukari worked so hard to be a good mother and to provide for her son by being good at her job as well, and she'd been doing it for years longer than Daikichi - he could not help but admire her strength and resilience whenever he looked at her.

As they finished their bentos, Rin and Kouki began to bounce with excitement again, chatting rapidfire about the animals they wanted to see still. With the kids making animal faces and noises in the background at each other, Daikichi folded the blanket to put it away while Yukari gathered the bento boxes and chopsticks. Daikichi moved to place the blanket in the satchel at the same time Yukari reached to put the boxes away and their hands brushed each other.

They both went still, Yukari glancing away quickly though she did not move her hand immediately. Daikichi just blinked quickly, fighting with his own urge to take her hand in his own for a moment before sternly telling himself that this was not the moment for that.

"Daikichi! Let's go!" This time the imperious voice was Rin's.

"Okay!" Daikichi let go of the blanket and moved away, smiling broadly at the kids to downplay the flush in his cheeks. "Let's see the bears!"

 

~*~*~*~

Yukari's gaze was thoughtful as she watched Daikichi shift his attention to the children. He was so nervous around children when she first met him, even his own Rin. It was true he was not Rin's father by birth, but she had heard the story of when and how and why Daikichi had taken the girl into his home, and if that was not a father's love then she would never be able to identify it. And then, over the months and years since, he had begun to fill a similar role for Kouki. Her own ex-husband was nowhere in the picture, and her son needed a person in his life to fill the hole left by him. However much she tried, Yukari could not work full time, be a mother to Kouki, and _also_ a father to him.

And then there was her own relationship with Rin. When Rin fell ill and Daikichi was so anxious over her fever, it was Yukari who had been able to soothe both Rin and Daikichi, being the strong and stable source of comfort and assurance for both. She had been able to teach Daikichi what he needed to know and show him by example how to be what Rin needed, and Rin had, in turn, begun to attach herself by bits to Yukari.

What would it be like, she wondered, to live as a family? As it was the four of them often spent weekends together, cooking meals, taking outings and short trips together, and meeting up with other friends of the children and their parents.

But more, what would it be like to sleep next to another person again? Feel their warmth near in the night, make breakfast together in the mornings, have the security of someone else who can keep life moving forward when the unexpected happens? These were not new thoughts for Yukari when she looked at Daikichi, but they were certainly more frequent these days. The same thoughts ran around in her mind as she watched Daikichi and the children through the rest of the zoo outing.

  
The need for an answer to those thoughts made Yukari smile as she quietly reached over and took Daikichi's hand in her own while Rin and Kouki were exclaiming over the zoo's lions. And then, when Daikichi looked at her with a mixture of startlement and pleasure, all Yukari could think was how nice it would feel when he finally called her _Yuka-chan_.


End file.
